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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Hey,
You could replace XP with a version of Linux (called a distribution or distro), and there would be quite a few benefits, but it would be a big change. I would recommend checking out this website: http://whylinuxisbetter.net/ It has some good comparisons and explanations of the differences between the two. Remember, you don't have to commit, you can try out Linux without installing it, so you have nothing to lose. A good distro to try out is Mint: you can check it out here. http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php Choose cinammon if your computer is newer, MATE if it's pretty old.

Hey,
You could replace XP with a version of Linux (called a distribution or distro), and there would be quite a few benefits, but it would be a big change. I would recommend checking out this website: http://whylinuxisbetter.net/ It has some good comparisons and explanations of the differences between the two. Remember, you don't have to commit, you can try out Linux without installing it, so you have nothing to lose. A good distro to try out is Mint: you can check it out here. http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php Choose cinammon if your computer is newer, MATE if it's pretty old.

As an XP user, I'm badly inconvenienced that MS is finally killing XP. I'm going to switch my XP system to Linux.

But as an Intel stockholder, I ought to be happy that MS is dropping XP. Most XP users are not going to be comfortable making the jump to Linux (It is hard for me and I have years of experience using Linux as a second OS). Most computers running XP might as well be boat anchors when you try to run a newer version of Windows. So people will be buying new computers.

As an XP user, I'm badly inconvenienced that MS is finally killing XP. I'm going to switch my XP system to Linux.

But as an Intel stockholder, I ought to be happy that MS is dropping XP. Most XP users are not going to be comfortable making the jump to Linux (It is hard for me and I have years of experience using Linux as a second OS). Most computers running XP might as well be boat anchors when you try to run a newer version of Windows. So people will be buying new computers.

Most of what you listed is accessed through your browser (hopefully Chrome or Firefox etc., not IE).

In switching from XP to Linux, there should be no real problems with Chrome or Firefox (if you use IE, you need to switch, but you won't find that difficult). Getting all your bookmarks and setting and other browser profile stuff moved from XP to Linux may be difficult, but it only needs to be done once (or not at all if you decide it is easier to just set all those things as you use them, similar to how they accumulated in the first place).

Installing plugins for the browser may be a bit trickier on Linux than Windows. But it isn't terribly hard and using plugins is no harder, just installing them.

Paint and MSOFFICE are probably not practical to continue using. You could use wine in Linux to keep using Paint and Office, but it probably isn't worth the trouble.

If you are not a real power-user of Word etc., you likely have only a little to unlearn/relearn to use OpenOffice or similar open source alternative to Office. Even if you are more of a power-user, as long as that applies to programs other than Excel, you should find the open source alternatives allow you to be just as much of a power-user. You just need a bit more unlearning/relearning to get there.

Nothing in open source approaches the performance of the now obsolete version of Excel, you might have gotten when you bought that machine. So if you are a power-user of Excel, you may want to figure out how to keep that obsolete copy running in wine/Linux.

On old hardware, newer Excel versions are much slower, and open source alternatives even slower than that. A casual user of Excel with trivial spreadsheets won't notice.

I think li81 was saying that he/she uses the gnu image manipulation program, and not implying that it's a google product. Also, look at Kolorpaint as a replacement for ms paint, and libreoffice as a replacement for ms office.

iTunes is not going to work and if you have any file on their DRM locked format is not going to work neither. however there are lots of Music players for Linux and some of them support iDevices.
Once you select the Linux Distribution you want to use it should have most of the stuff you need for a computing working desktop. an office suite, music and video player, web browser, email manager, text editor, graphic design software and a bunch of other stuff.

Some other software is available but due to licensing is not added to your computer at installation time e.g. Flash player plugin, and codecs for media files and encrypted DVDs. however with a Google search you can find the how to install them, or by going to their web site.

If you are planning to use whichever Linux Distribution go to their web site to download the ISO image file burn it into a disk as image and boot your computer from that disk. Do no go a random web site to download anything. Some distros you might want to check out are

If you are installing Linux in legacy hardware don't expect to be blown away by its performance, instead look for a light weight version of the distro of your choice. Perhaps running a graphical interface such as Xfce or LXDE.